IBM's reluctance to provide system symbol support in *batch* is well motivated. From the beginning of system symbols, they were honored only in STC and TSU. In batch they were ignored. The problem with batch is that a number of key factors affecting symbols are unpredictable. So when and how would a symbol be set?
At submit time? At conversion time? At NJE transmission time? At execution time? For STC or TSU, there is no variability. I participated in free-for-all discussions at SHARE on how symbols might be implemented in batch. Strong opinions were all over the map. Finally IBM relented and provided support for symbols in batch with a set of rules that are well documented, like them or not. Besides the variabilities above, there is also this: What if a system symbol happens to clash with an existing JCL or PROC variable? Even most installations could not predict this problem. When symbols are ignored, user variables can be almost anything. With symbols honored, all sorts of crazy results are possible. Hence a shop has to take specific action to honor system symbols in batch. Caveat emptor. . . J.O.Skip Robinson Southern California Edison Company Electric Dragon Team Paddler SHARE MVS Program Co-Manager 323-715-0595 Mobile 626-543-6132 Office ⇐=== NEW [email protected] -----Original Message----- From: IBM Mainframe Discussion List [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Carmen Vitullo Sent: Friday, May 05, 2017 8:17 AM To: [email protected] Subject: (External):Re: JCL System symbols Strange mindset, afraid of change - I don't see any concern or auditing issues. Been slow to change that status quo - I'm trying :) Carmen ----- Original Message ----- From: "Paul Gilmartin" <[email protected]> To: [email protected] Sent: Friday, May 5, 2017 10:12:08 AM Subject: Re: JCL System symbols On Fri, 5 May 2017 10:00:12 -0400, Carmen Vitullo wrote: >Good point, sorry to make the assumption , for the most part we >DISALLOW systems symbols in batch > Why? Cui bono? Is there a performance or security concern? -- gil ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to [email protected] with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN
